The First Word: The Deal From UNCLE

On this day — House and Senate negotiators continue to try to hammer out a school finance deal; details on the budget deal worked out between the two bodies (which is dependent upon working out a deal on school finance); plus a quick wrap up of item’s of note from the Legislative session; in ‘The Clips’ R.G. Ratcliffe says that Perry will walk away as this session’s big winner, Sen. Dan Patrick won’t rule out a bid for the US Senate; and in ‘EXTRA!,’ the Republican presidential field starts to take shape and the challenges in marketing Malick’s latest movie.

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***Latest on the Public Ed Negotiations

- Photo by Nolan Hicks, Houston Chronicle

Sen. Florence Shapiro emerged from an afternoon of negotiations between the House and the Senate just before 7 p.m. to tell the world that there would be no news last night and that reporters could leave their stakeouts before sunset, making her the most popular person in the Capitol for that moment.

She told the gathered reporters that the House and Senate are continuing to work towards a deal, that she said could be hopefully wrapped up by tomorrow. However she cautioned that a great deal of work remained, but sounded a note of possible progress by revealing that negotiators had just received the first set of runs on a possible proposal.

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***GRAPHIC EXPLAINER: Where the compromise falls

The conference committee adopted a spending plan for education that closely mirrors the Senate’s expenditure level. However, unlike in years past, the Legislature will not fund expected growth in enrollment and the associated costs, decreasing the amount of per student funding that school districts across the state will receive.

Graphic by Nolan Hicks, Houston Chronicle

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Below the fold — a cartoon by the Chronicle’s Nick Anderson; ‘The Clips,’ featuring a possible U.S. Senate run by state Sen. Dan Patrick; and in ‘EXTRA!’ the challenges to marketing a Malick film.

The plan, which must be considered by the full House and Senate, would cut $15.2 billion, or 8.1 percent, from current state and federal spending in the face of a revenue shortfall fueled by the recession and past budget decisions.

The spending plan is contingent upon the House and Senate reaching an agreement on how to finance public schools. Under the proposed agreement, public schools would receive $4 billion less then what they would get under current funding formulas to deal with growing enrollments. A key point of contention is expected to be how that $4 billion cut is apportioned among schools across the state.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, said he expects a special session would be needed if lawmakers do not agree on a school plan. The regular legislative session ends Monday.

“Under the circumstances, this is a great budget, and it does adequately fund state services,” Ogden said. “It’s not without pain … but Texas will be fine under this budget for the next two years, in my opinion.”

A proposal adopted by the legislature’s budget conference committee Thursday would provide funding for TEXAS Grants — the state’s main source of higher education aid for financially needed students — for about 33,100 incoming freshmen.

That’s far less than the estimated 53,000 graduating high school seniors who would qualify for the grant, but substantially more than the budget originally approved by the House.

“It’s terrible and it saddens me, but it couldn’t been worse. It could’ve been much worse,” said Senate Higher Education Chair Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, in reference to the House’s initial proposal to eliminate funding for all freshman students.

In a pointed message to Gov. Rick Perry, Senate Democrats again have rejected the governor’s choice to lead the State Board of Education, in large part because of the board’s approval of controversial curriculum standards that are being challenged as discriminatory and historically inaccurate.

Senate rejection of a governor’s nominee is rare. But in back-to-back rejections, Senate Democrats this week blocked the confirmation of State Board of Education Chair Gail Lowe, R-Lampasas. Two years ago, they busted down her predecessor Don McLeroy, R-Bryan.

“The message from us is the State Board has become the board of ideology rather than the board that’s focused on the education of Texas children,” Senate Democratic Caucus leader Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio said on Thursday. “It’s ideology first and education second.”

A limited statewide smoking ban appeared dead for the 2011 session on Thursday after a House-Senate conference committee stripped it from a must-pass revenue measure.

Sponsored by Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Denton, and Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, the measure would outlaw smoking in public places such as bars and restaurants. Pool halls, cigar bars and charitable bingo were exempted from the bill.

The House, in an amendment by Crownover, included the ban in the revenue measure late last week but House and Senate negotiators writing a final version of the bill Thursday voted to eliminate it. The ban was supported by four of the five House conferees but none of the five representatives from the Senate.

Perry has gotten his way on almost every item on is legislative agenda and squeezed the state budget turnip until it bled. Perry is the flavor of the week nationally for the politicos and pundits looking for a candidate of principled policy and pizzazz to join the Republican presidential contest. And Perry’s biggest public relations flop of the session – meddling with higher education – hasn’t fazed him in the least. If you believe the higher education community and alumni and newspaper backlash to Perry’s support of Jeff Sandefer and his proposed “Seven Breakthrough Solutions” for university reform have prompted Perry to back off, think again.

Sources close to the governor tell me that in either late June or July, Perry will unveil his own proposal for higher education reform. While the details are still being worked out, it is sure to contain his call for $10,000 undergraduate degrees, greater efficiencies in the teaching of undergraduates, teacher accountability and a potential rebalancing of instructional and research budgets with a goal of lowering the cost of a bachelor’s degree. Perry, in his Austin American-Statesman op-ed, said academia wants him to “butt out.” He’s not going to: “Our knowledge-dependent economy and you — the taxpayer footing the bills — deserve better.”

Twenty-five percent of Republican primary voters polled by UT and the Texas Tribune earlier this week chose Dewhurst from a list of possible candidates, which put him well ahead of the rest of the field. But Patrick’s name was not on the list, and fifty-seven percent answered “don’t know” or “someone not on the list.”

I asked Patrick this afternoon if he was going to throw his hat in the ring. After a long pause, Patrick said, “No comment, for now.”

Texas GOP House Members are publicly pushing Gov. Rick Perry (R) to take up Congressional redistricting in a still-to-be-announced special session, lest a three-judge panel determine their fate.

It’s a tall order for Perry, who has a notoriously tense relationship with the Lone Star State’s Congressional delegation. But if a new Congressional map has not passed the state Legislature by Monday at midnight, which is very likely at this point, Texas House Members will be stuck having the courts draw the new boundaries unless Perry takes up the map.

“We’re all just on pins and needles,” Rep. Francisco “Quico” Canseco (R) told Roll Call. “I don’t know what’s going to happen or where we’re going to go. We may be thrown into the courts, or maybe the governor will call a special session to do it. I don’t know, and I wish I did.”